Norfolk County Netball Association

Testimonails 2023

Carol Hague

Carole has been involved in netball as a player, umpire, coach, administrator and club treasurer since she started playing at school in 1957, playing with a hole in her trainer where her toe continually popped out! As a player, Carole's main club reign was as a young lady from school and then as senior captain and coach with Norwich City Supporters who won a considerable number of back to back division 1 titles in the Norwich Netball League. The squad was also successful in the then, equivalent regional league comprising the winners of local leagues, such as Lowestoft and Haverhill. Carole also represented Norfolk County, first as a defender, and then in her preferred shooting role. In her latter playing seasons, she partnered her young daughter, Karen Webb, nee Hague as they were dubbed the 'impeccable pair' in the local papers. Carole was a 'preliminary' umpire too and officiated weekly in the Norwich senior and junior leagues until the reaccreditation for 'C' award came in. It was Carole's love of coaching which took then over and she started with a school team in 1985 where she started helping at Firside Junior School. It was school fixtures to start with, but soon grew to entering the local Canary Floodlit League making sure the school girls had access to competition and a pathway outside of the education structure. Carole also started (with her late best friend, Paula Taylor), Norwich Girls, who transitioned to Norwich City Combi where players could then progress to the senior Norwich City Supporters squad. When Norwich City Supporters and Norwich City Combi became a founder member of Norfolk United Netball Club, Carole and her young 17 year old daughter really started to grow and develop junior netball even further, creating Norfolk United Norwich JDC. This all began in 1999 and is still going strong to this day. With over 80 young people every week gaining access to training and competition, Carole is still seen on the coaching team at the age of 77 and has been the head of administration from 1999 until 2019. She has also een on the Norwich Junior League committee for over 15 years. On top of this, Carole has spanned a 20 year reign as treasurer for Norfolk United, recently retiring and is still a table official at Prem matches!! Carole deserves every accolade going for her 'complete' services to netball, which are still going strong!!!

Helen Twinning

In 1988 started as a voluntary coach in Hertfordshire with several school teams and Kardale Netball club. 1991 moved to Bedfordshire coached with Ashton Ladies and Ashton Middle school and Mill Vale middle school. 2008 coached and umpired at Dallow Primary school and with Dallow Saracens until 2012. Moved to Hertfordshire coached and umpired with Kardale until 2019. From 2020 coached and umpired with Herts Dynamos until September 2022. Moved to Norfolk and now coach with Stalham Ladies. Throughout my 30 years of Netball I have coached, managed and umpired many teams. I have coached development squads and ran Netball Nippers for 4 years in St Albans: Netball for 2 - 8 years old. I was match secretary with Luton, Dunstable & District League in 2011. I am Secretary of the St Albans Primary schools Netball from 2017 - today where i am currently collating their league results online from Norfolk and advising the new chair this season as she takes over the running of this organisation. My other surnames have been Holpin and Davis. Helen Swain at Kardale and Nikki Belcher - Brown at Watford Prem Hertfordshire know me well as I've coached and umpired teams in the now Junior Garden league in Welwyn Garden City and the St Albans league often for free over the years.

Sophie Pike - North Walsham

1993-1996 Umpiring Secretary for North Walsham League 2000-2012 Umpiring Secretary for North Walsham League 2004-2012 County Umpiring Secretary 2004-2012 County Lead Mentor 2006-2012 East Regional League Umpire Co-ordinator 2018-2022 County Secretary 2019- present day County Officiating Lead

Also she is a B Award umpire, Assessor and Umpire Tutor and some of these qualifications would have started in the 1990’s

Sheelagh Redpath

Involved in Bedfordshire as an umpire from 1973 – regional award through to International.

Over the years held committee positions of Bedford League Chair and Secretary as well as Bedfordshire County Secretary and a spell as East Treasurer.

Moved to Norfolk in 2017 and involved in Lowestoft and County committee.

Anne Harper

Early 1980’s as County Schools’ coach and has continued through over 40 years involved.

County Schools’ chair , ongoing.

B award umpire, still active.

England Netball Tutor.

Umpire Mentor.

Umpire Assessor.

Walking Netball Host.

Current County Chair.

Steve and Barber Rogers

Barbara and Steve Rogers have been coaches of Cliff Park Netball Club/NU for over 40 years. They show dedicated and commitment every week to ensure that all teams both junior and senior have transport and teams to be able to play their games.

Sue Brown

Umpiring started with C award in 1994 and gained A IN 2011.

Various roles from 2008 include

Norfolk County Committee Hon Secretary 2008 - 2016, Norfolk Umpire Lead Mentor 2016 to date, Regional Umpire Lead Mentor 2018 - 2022, Norwich League Umpiring Secretary 2015 - 2018, England Netball Tutor 2013 to date, England Netball Assessor 2014 to date, England Netball Supervisory Assessor 2017 to date.

Jackie Jay

As a club we would like to nominate our superwoman, Jackie Jay. Jackie has been an integral part since the club’s inception (previously known as Reds) over 12 years ago. Jackie started her netball career as a high-level player for the then known club Norwich City Supporters (now known as Norfolk United) back in the 1980's, where her love of the game grew. Inspired to grow the sport she became a level 1 coach as well as starting on her umpiring pathway. Due to a horrible ankle injury, Jackie had to retire from high level playing and pursued her coaching and umpiring qualifications. In 90/00's Jackie achieved her B Award umpiring (previously having held the preliminary "old" award) as well as her Level 2 coaching qualification. Jackie continued working with Norfolk United and successfully coached their East Region squads to winning ways. Looking for a “slower pace”, Jackie joined what is now Knights Netball Club around 2010's as our head coach, captain and umpire, while also volunteering at the local middle school as their after-school netball coach. Knights Netball Club has gone from strength to strength, with 3 teams all playing in the local Norwich league, within the top 3 divisions. This is all down to Jackie and her love of our sport, who despite ongoing injuries, personal misfortunes, she has never let the club down, often putting us all first before her family and certainly herself. She organises all training sessions, one to one coaching, mentoring and umpire commitments and anything else that is thrown her way. Many of our current Knights netballers have known and been supported by Jackie for a long time and would regard Jackie not only as head coach but also a friend. She epitomises the word volunteer, with endless nights out either coaching, supporting coaching, umpiring or mentoring over the years, not to mention running our training sessions and coordinating the teams. She is 100% committed to our club and to

netball.

All of our club would agree that Jackie is “Knights Netball”, and we would be lost without her! Outside the club she supports the County by being not only a mentor but also an assessor, with many success stories. Jackie is a true inspiration to netball as a whole and we would love her to be recognised for her 40 years of dedication to our wonderful sport (especially as it’s her special birthday next year!!)